ARC hires new head of sports

The 2011-12 athletic seasons were eventful for American River College. The Beavers had 13 teams make the playoffs, with four of those teams claiming championships. The program also saw athletic director Jean Snuggs retire after 33 years. The current spoke with ARCs appointed interim athletic director Greg Warzecka about his background and goals for the upcoming semester.

The Current: Can you tell us about your background in sports?

Greg Warzecka: I started in the 1970s as an assistant baseball coach at UC Berkeley. I coached there for five years and went on to be the head coach at San Francisco State for three years. I moved to Chicago where I became the head baseball coach and men’s athletic director at the University of Chicago for four and a half years. At that point, my baseball career ended and I took a job at the University of Redlands, a beautiful Division III private school where I was the director of physical education and athletics for the next five and a half years before going to UC Davis where I was director of athletics for 16 years.

You retired for a year. How does it feel to be back?

The year off was good. It was one of those situations where I felt that after 34 or 35 years in college athletics, I had just been on a racehorse and needed a break to evaluate were I wanted to go in the last five to seven years of my career. When this position was posted and brought to my attention, I thought I’ll explore it. It’s seven miles from my house, and the more I learned about American River College, the more interested I became.

What are your goals for this semester?

One thing I’m working diligently on is our apparel and uniforms, equipment and supplies that are needed for our students who are competing. I sense that over time with budget cuts, it’s been stressful on the students who make the team and want to represent ARC, and there’s a lot of cost associated with that. I’m trying to work hard to find ways to minimize the cost for a student to compete in athletics here at ARC.

How do you plan to reach these goals?

I’ve built relationships over time with apparel companies, and everybody likes to be associated with a certain company whether it’s Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour. You can build relationships with these companies even at the community college level, which create an opportunity for us to standardize our logo.